Enter with an open mind and leave with an inspired heart.

Are you open-minded? Come celebrate with us and help us increase mental health awareness! By participating in our Open Minds Event, you will support a more inclusive and open society.

Slip into your favourite jeans and most comfortable shoes and eat, drink and dance the night away! This fun and casual evening will take place at Montreal South-West trendy venue: Théâtre Paradoxe. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Honorary President

Andy Nulman

Co-founder and CEO, Play The Future

Mini-bio

Starting his career at the age of 16 as a journalist, Andy is best known for co-founding the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal with Gilbert Rozon, and turning it into the world’s largest and most prestigious event of its kind.

At Just For Laughs, Nulman produced over 150 Festival TV shows, in a host of languages around the world. In 1997, he wrote, produced and even hosted The Worst of Just For Laughs for CBC and won a Gemini Award in 1993 for The Best of Just For Laughs.

Following his success with Just For Laughs, in 1999 he went on to co-found mobile media pioneer Airborne Entertainment with Garner Bornstein, which he eventually sold for enough money to be able to hire people to write bios such as this one.
In 2010, he rejoined Just For Laughs as President, Festivals and Television until he left once again to embark on more world-changing digital ventures, including his most recent, the predictive gaming platform Play the Future.
He’s also written three books, and is renowned as a risk-taking, trouble-making public speaker. Andy possesses a unique skill set of media, management and marketing expertise over a career spanning more than four decades. And that’s nothing to laugh at. Unless he slips on a banana peel…then you can crack up.

Maude Leblond, Group Head and Managing Director, Financial Institutions Group, National Bank Financial

Organizing Committee:

Damiana Cavallaro

Caroline Dillon

Susan Doherty

Jill Drummond

Marisa Giannetti – Chair of the Board, Douglas Foundation

Marie Giguère, Ad.E.

Alicia Hamilton

Sarah Ivory

Lucy McInnes

Michael Novak

Aphrodite Salas

Nancy Simard

Lisa Teolis

Jeannie Vondjidis

Suzanne Bélanger, Executive Director, Douglas Foundation

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The Douglas

By participating to Open Minds, you are a part of the solution!

With strong and steady philanthropic support from community in Québec and elsewhere, the Douglas Institute offers our community the best care possible and has developed into a jewel in Montreal’s crown of brain science, making breakthroughs in depression, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, eating disorders …

Where do the funds go?

By supporting the Douglas Mental Health University Institute Foundation, you are contributing to :

Finding

finding real solutions to eradicate mental diseases by financing the most important research centre in this field in Quebec (see below for some of our majors breakthroughs)

Improving

improving patient care and treatment

Raising awareness

raising public awareness of mental disorders and destigmatizing the disease

The keys to mental illness prevention and healthy minds will come from neuroscience and mental health research

The Douglas Mental Health University Institute

Founded in 1881 by Alfred Perry and a group of Protestant clergy and Montreal citizens, the Douglas Institute was named the “Protestant Hospital for the Insane” and was intended to be the most progressive mental health institution in Quebec.

The Douglas Institute is the affiliated teaching hospital in mental health of the Réseau universitaire intégré de santé McGill. Since April 2015, it is part of the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. The Douglas offers leading-edge treatments, often unique in Québec. Its teams of specialists, clinicians and researchers strive to constantly advance scientific knowledge, integrating it into patient care and sharing it with the community to raise awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Our mandate:

To care, teach, evaluate, discover and share knowledge.

The Douglas Institute Interdisciplinary teams offer programs to treat

anxiety

depression

eating disorders

schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis

bipolar disorders

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia

The Douglas Institute in numbersClick to discover

63%

63% of Quebec territory covered including the north of the province with special services for Crees and Inuits communities

1600

1 600 employees

266

266 beds

100000

100 000 annual outpatient visits

10000

Bilingual services to 10 000 patients per year

4500

4 500 emergency room visits per year

1

1 Research Centre deemed exemplary by FRQ-S

1

The largest research centre in mental health in Québec and the 2nd most important on in Canada

60

More than 60 Principal Investigators including 8 Canada Research Chairs 3 of them among the most cited in the world

2013 – Dr. Jens Pruessner discovers not only that violence experienced during childhood changes the brain structure but also that those changes reflect the very nature of the abuse, sexual or emotional.

2014 – Le Dr Bruno Giros demonstrates for the first time the role of dopamine in brain hippocampus structure. At the end, his studies will enable the development of new therapeutic approaches to treat schizophrenia.

2014 – Dr. Judes Poirier and his team discover a genetic variant which reduce from 30 to 50% the risk of developing Alzheimer disease. This is good news as a medicine capable of imitating its effects exists, and could possibly delays the first signs of this terrible disease.

2016 – Dr. Sylvain Williams and his team find new evidence that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is crucial in the mouse memory formation. This discovery might apply to humans, as a poor quality of sleep is more and more associated with brain diseases triggering (Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson).

Mental health

Mental illness indirectly affects all Canadians at some time through a family member, friend or colleague

– 1 Canadian in 5 will personally experience a mental illness in their lifetime.- Of the 10 leading causes of disability worldwide, five are mental disorders

– About 4,000 Canadians commit suicide each year. It represents 24% of all deaths among 15-24 year olds.

– In Canada, only 1 out of 5 children who need mental health services receives them.

– Almost one half (49%) of those who feel they have suffered from depression or anxiety have never gone to see a doctor about this problem.

– By 2020, the World Health Organization estimates that depressive illnesses will become the second leading cause of disease burden worldwide and the leading cause in developed countries like Canada.

– 3.4 million Canadians are affected by major depression (800,000 Quebecers).

– Once depression is recognized, help can make a difference for 80% of people who are affected, allowing them to get back to their regular activities.

– Less than 4% of medical research funding goes to mental illness research. Yet 20% of Canadians will experience a diagnosable mental illness in their life.

Partners

Sponsorship opportunities

Sponsorship level

Platinum

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Advantages

$50,000

$25,000

$10,000

$5,000

Presenting sponsor

X

Identified section with your logo

X

X

X

Official photo and on stage presence

X

X

Customized tour of the Douglas Institute

10 pers.

8 pers

Conference on mental health for your employees or clients

X

Sponsor an exclusive element of the evening: bars, food stations,valet parking, paper and prints or others